With Today's Cars, You Can Take It With You

If America's drive-in movies hadn't already been shut down and paved over, the entertainment available in vehicles at the 2000 Chicago Auto Show would've killed them.

Who wants to sit in a parked car watching a grainy film projected on a screen 200 feet away when you can either view a movie, watch TV or play video games in your vehicle - either while parked, cruising city streets or tooling down the highway.

Now, that's entertainment!

A few years ago having a CD player or cup holder in your car was cutting edge. But as we reported last year in Tempo's Commuting Culture series, people are spending so much time in their cars now that they are looking for the same creature comforts they expect in their living rooms.

"It's getting a little scary," said Mike Cook, co-chairman of the Chicago Auto Show. "How much more can we put in these cars until no one's paying any attention at all to the road?"

(Actually, engineers are hard at work on developing cars that operate on automatic pilot. Look for an announcement in, oh, say about eight to 10 years.)

One excellent peek into the future is at the exhibit area for Lincolns, where Beverly Hills Motoring, a high-end dealer with celebs like Cindy Crawford, Kenny G, Janet Jackson and Tori Spelling as customers, shares display space.

Beverly Hills Motoring has an agreement with Lincoln to fit - and make available - 100 Navigator Special Edition SUVs each year with creature comforts not yet available to the rest of the country and here is what you could get with one of those select models for 2000:

- A video system with three screens (one in the dash, two behind the front head rests, which can also be used behind the second-row head rests) that can be switched to TV, digital video discs (DVD) and video games.

- The front screen automatically works with a backup camera when the vehicle is in reverse, giving the driver a view of what is in the rear.

- A rear console with a box for either refrigerating or heating food.

- A computer system in which individual Palm Pilots can be plugged into the program to help the driver get a little work done on the way to the office.

"Some of this will become standard equipment," said Beverly Hills Motoring founder Andy Cohen. "We had Windows 98 available two years ago in our cars. Not all of what we'll have makes the cut because sometimes it proves to be either too costly or unwieldy.

"We've been about three years ahead of curve," added Cohen, "but, at the pace things are going these days, sometimes the technology is outdated by the time it can be integrated as standard equipment."

Meanwhile, a stroll through the 2000 Chicago Auto Show indicates manufacturers are working overtime right now to make a vehicle's occupants feel as if they're sitting in the family game room or, considering the advanced, business-friendly technology becoming available, in an office.

Here are some options on display or, according to reps, in the offing:

- Mercedes-Benz is offering a multifunction steering wheel with its E-Class line, CLK and CL coupes, which allows the driver to operate the radio and telephone.

- Delco Electronic radios in Pontiac Bonnevilles can be programmed to temporarily interrupt audio programming with weather or traffic alerts.

- Ford has a new Sony "explosion" sound system for its sportier Focus line that, according to division president Jim O'Connor, "will blow your ears off." It features 13 speakers and, with 460 watts of power, more than doubles the decibel level over anything Ford offered in the past.

- A Pontiac Piranha in which the trunk door can be lowered to turn the sporty vehicle (it resembles a dune buggy) into a small, flatbed truck.

- DaimlerChrysler's 300 Hemi concept car has a "thumb scanner" in which the driver must identify him- or herself by placing a thumb on a pad. If the vehicle is operated without proper thumb ID, an in-car camera will take the driver's picture, and it will be sent over the Internet.

- Cadillac is offering "Night Vision," an infrared technology in glass used in Desert Storm by the military to improve the range for sight in the darkness, in the windshields of some models.

"It's one advance after another," said 2000 Chicago Auto Show co-chair Dan Feeny. "In the next 10 years, I'm sure you'll be able to get into your car, plug in the destination, and sit back and let the car drive itself."

Sjoerd Dijkstra, DaimlerChrysler manager for product design communications, says automobile manufacturers will be greatly concentrating on in-car Internet connections in the next few years.

A new satellite -- "probably in 2002" -- will provide an exclusive, enhancing link for computer systems in vehicles. "This will mean they will become even more like offices on wheels," he said.

When there is complete Internet access in cars, it is very likely that two-way, voice-activation technology will be the rage.